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fiTATE OF THE UNION. 



SPEECH 

J^ OF 



^ 



HON. ALEXANDER H. RICE, OF MASSACHUSETTS, 




Jf THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 26, 1861. 



The House having under consideration tlie report from 
the select committee of thirty-three — 
Mr. RICE said: 

Mr. Speaker: The value of any discussion 
upon the great questions which now agitate the 
country will be somewhat estimated according to 
the spirit in whicii it is conducted, and the meas- 
ure of faitli entertained in the possibility of ad- 
justing the existing difficulties. I have felt many 
impulses to participate earlier in the discussion, 
but have been prevented by the same necessity 
which, up to this time, has excluded some mem- 
bers of the committee whose report furnishes the 
propositions before us. And although I may now 
fail to present any considerations which shall 
change a vote, or conciliate an opposing opinion, 
yet I feel it incumbent upon me as a participator 
in these important scenes, and as the Represent- 
ative of a constituency which might present many 
claims to respectful audience, to utter, for myself 
and for those who agree with me, a few words 
indicative of my own purposes, and of peace and 
conciliation inbehalf of the noblest and best Gov- 
ernment that the sun in all his cour.se looks down 
upon. 

If there were no other considerations than those 
which spring from the current events of these 
days, I might be among those who despair of the 
Republic; for we seem to be dissolving and sep- 
arating into isolated fragments, like some fair 
globe which once adorned the sky and shed its 
benignant light throughout the universe of God; 
but now, riven with convulsion, is bursting into 
meager and telescopic stars, no longer beautifying 
any constellation in the firmament, and in danger 
of becoming lost from the observation, if not from 
the knowledge of mankind. We have listened to 
those, here and elsewhere, who talk as lightly of 
the value of the American Union as of a piece of 
merchandise, which may be produced or disposed 
of at pleasure. One might almost suppose the 
Federal Constitution, the great compact of the 
people, to be a convenient instrument which may 
be followed or violated at pleasure. And we may 
soon expect to hear the names of those who stand 
foremost in our country's fame classed among 
dreamy enthusiasts, or as gleaners only in the 
fieldsof political speculation. But, thank Heaven, 
such is not the voice of the people of the land. 
Amidst all the discord and apparent disintegration 
of the country, the great heart of the people sends 
forth the pulsations of patriotic blood, giving hope 
that the day is even yet to dawn when it shall re- 
animate the whole body-politic, when the members 
of the great confederate system shall revive under 



its invigorating streams, and the glow of health 
and the vigor of life shall once more restore us to 
the normal condition of unity, fraternity, and 
power. 

Mr. Speaker, I cannot refrain from speaking 
warmly for that Union which I have been taught 
to hold in devoted admiration from my earliest 
years. It was my fortune to be born upon soil 
near which transpired some of the principal events 
of the American Revolution. The home of my 
childhood, and of my maturer life as well, was 
within sight of the smoke of the conflict on Bunker 
Hill, in which the gallant little army of the colo- 
nies suffered a defeat, the glory of which sur- 
passed even the victory of that day. The plains 
of Lexington and Concord sent their startling 
echoes over the very hills which have since been 
my familiar haunts. I have gazed at frequent in- 
tervals, all my life long, upon the effigies in mar- 
ble and upon canvas of those who braved the 
perils and directed the counsels of these and of 
later struggles. I have dwelt olways amidst the 
associations a 'H traditions of their deeds. The 
walk to my daily avocations has been beside the 
memorials with which patriotism has sought to 
bestow veneration and gratitude upon their names, 
and I have worshiped in temples beneath and 
around which all but theirimperishable glory and 
their immortal spirits sleeps in the silence and 
repose of death. Sir, I am not prepared to cele- 
brate the obsequies of the nation which, under 
the will of Providence, the patriots founded; and 
those who are now engaged in the sacrilege of its 
destruction shall, I verily believe, after the pas- 
sion of the hour has passed, live, while they con- 
tinue, amidst the displeasure of earth and Heaven; 
and history, through all the yeairs to come, shall 
render their disgrace immortal. 

1 said that if there were no other considerations 
than those derived from current events, we might 
almost despair of the country. There are other 
considerations. The instincts of men seem al- 
ways to have pointed to a period when the ex- 
periment of aGovernment founded upon the con- 
sent of the governed should be successful; and 
the repeated failures which have attended such 
experiments hitherto, have not yet extinguished 
either the hope or the conviction of ultimate suc- 
cess. The American was founded in that hypoth- 
esis and faith. It seemed sufficient to account 
for the failure of antecedent republics tliat they 
had lieen based upon the ruins of older political 
systems, the relics and influence of which were 
necessarily intermingled with their structure and 
tempered their legislation. Here wasa newcoun- 



try, with a fresh and vigorous people, where, in 
theeslablisliment of a Government, the tusk was 
not so much to change and alter as to organize 
and create a social system. The result has for 
nearly eighty years stood forth us the example 
of a nation which has become more and more the 
pride and the marvel of the world. They have 
seen its wonderful growth in population, their 
enterprise, thrift, and intelligence; its development 
in arts, the spread of its commerce, its advance- 
ment in all the elements of high civilization, and 
its early attainment of the rank of one of the four 
greatest Powers of the earth. 

In the majestic presence of the great Republic, 
tyrants have trembled, and kings have wielded 
their scepters with gentler hand. Imperial cabi- 
nets and hoary Parliaments have tempered their 
decrees with growing deference to the jjopular 
will. Justice has entered the royal courts, and 
poised her balance upon the fulcrum of civic 
rights; and fame — no longer the patron of privi- 
leged classes — has laid the avenues to her shining 
temple within the aspirations of the masses of 
men. And all this has been done before the Cap- 
itol of the nation is completed, and before all the 
companions of its peerless founder have passed 
from the earth. 

Butthere was another consideration, orelement, 
to which the founders of this Government looked 
for its stability, and which made it an exception j| 
to its predecessors. It was to stand upon the basis m 
of popular intelligence and civic virtues. It was li 
not upon its arms, or upon its industry, or upon i| 
commerce, that they depended, so much as upon j{ 
these. If it falls now, what a tremendous fact will I 
be added to the history of human governments! ij 
Its decline will send dismay into the hearts of every 
oppressed and struggling people upon earth, and 
will be everywhere accepted as the final demon- 
stration of the incapacity of the race to govern 
itself; or else we must accept the humiliating al- 
ternative, that, in this nineteenth century of the 
Christian era — the golden period of modern times 
— there was not enough of virtue and intelligence 
among the American people to preserve a Gov- 
ernment conceived by the wisdom and patriotism, 
and sealed with the blood, of their immediate an- 
cestors. I cannot believe we have reached such 
national degeneracy as is thus implied. 

The physical structure of the continent, and 
the commercial relations thereby incident to our 
people, all point also to a unity of Government, j 
We compass the width of the domain from sea i 
to sea. VVe have great navigable waters upon | 
the north and upon the south; nearly all varieties j 
of natural productions grow under the several 
degrees of latitude between them; while the North 
is bound to tlie South, and the South to the North, 
by navigable streams whose courses conform 
nearly to the meridians of longitude. To these 
physical bonds we may always add the less pal- 
jwible, but even atrimger, ties of community of 
race, of language, of religion, and of mutual in- 
terest; and wo find in these all the assurance that, 
whult ver obstacles may for the mon\ent interrupt 
our peaceful union, the laws by which wc are held 
tngciher are stronger even lliun the jtassiona of 
men. 

There iw, to be sure, Mr. Speaker, one aspect 
of afliiirs wliich suggisis a j>rovidential interrup- 
tion in the events which are now transpiring. 



Every reflecting mind may not have" 
the f-ACt that these events occur at a peculiar l,(3 
riodinournational progress; and the lesson which 
they are designed to teach may have a significance 
which is not immediately apprehended. During 
the existence of the Anglo-Saxon race upon this 
continent, they have passed through the various 
political stages of colonial dependence and con- 
federate Stales, and are now in the relation of a 
General Government, superseding that Confed- 
eration. It would not be difficult to suggest prov- 
idential reasons why the discovery of the conti- 
nent itself was assigned to the particular period 
whenit0(xurred; and something more than chance 
seems to have directed the remarkable incidents 
of the immigration by which it was settled, and 
the peculiar elements of which that immigration 
was composed. Certain it is, that nowhere else 
could that freedom of opinion have been attained 
which has here been exercised; nor the same elas- 
ticity of character have been developed, except 
when there was the same boundless territory in- 
viting to enterprise and adventure. Was it, then, 
r)art of the providential design that such pecu- 
iaritics of character, and a corresponding elas- 
ticity of government, should be constituted for the 
purpose of subjugating this continent, and open- 
ing it to the purposes and uses of the noblest civ- 
ilization ? And this result having now been rhainly 
accomplished, the wilderness threaded, the mount- 
ains scaled, the savage subdued, and the oceans 
united by a cultivated and homogeneous race, are 
we preparing to enter upon a new phase of polit- 
ical life, in which the characteristics of discovery 
and expansion shall be exchanged for consolida- 
tion and discipline? A French writer of distinc- 
tion has given his conception of an ideal condition 
of society, " in which all men would profess an 
equalattachmentand respect for the laws of which 
they are the common authors; in which the au- 
thority of the State would be respected as neces- 
sary, though not as divine, and the loyalty of the 
subject to the Chief Magistrate would not be a pas- 
sion, but a quiet and rational persuasion; where 
every individual, being in the possession of rights 
which he is sure to retain, a manly reliance and 
reciprocal courtesy should arise between all classes, 
removed alike from pride and from meanness." 
Certainly the United States have already realized 
all, and more than this conception; and if we have 
at length reached one of those great transition 
periods which occur in the life of nations, then, 
indeed, the time has come when the real great- 
ness of our Government and the strength of its 
[ institutions are to be tested; when we are to ex- 
I hibit the nobility of the American people, and en- 
ter their final vindication among men ; or when wc 
are to meet the fate and fortunes of those whose 
weakness, or blindness, or impetuosity, shall add 
onemore to the wrecks of empires. In view, then, 
of the emergency which is before us and around 
us, we may well summon our best powers to meet 
this hour of trial; to resist this demon of national 
discord; to cast out the influence which is allur- 
ing us to national dissolution and fratricidal war; 
so that, after its departure, we may survey with 
clearer vision this fairest heritage of the earth, 
and from the heights of a loyal patriotism in- 
voke those ministrations of peace which shall con- 
secrate afresh and forever our devotion to our 
native land. 



Mr. Speaker, I believe that the ^reat contro- 
versy which is at present waged with such fero- 
city as to tlireaten the destruction of this Govern- 
ment, is assigned to the smallest causes-that ever 
engendered a national tumult. And if the case 
were fully stated in the catalogue of grievances 
which has been presented for its justification, it 
would seem to require but little either of time or 
of ability to bringabout a satisfactory settlement. 
It has been alleged that the election of a President 
by a party limited to one section of the country is 
justifiable cause for the people of the opposite sec- 
tion to dissolve their connection with the Govern- 
ment. If this be so, then the election of a Presi- 
dent would seem to be a geographical problem, a 
question of zones and of parallels of latitude and 
longitude, whose heterogeneous suffrage must be 
blended into the unit of a successful candidate — 
an experiment in political alchemy too dangerous 
and intricate, 1 imagine, for common undertaking. 
But if it be said that the complaint is not so much 
a matter of locality as of certain opinions and 
sentiments which are predominant in certain 
places, then the contest is against the incorpora- 
tion of those supposed peculiar opinions, or the 
policy founded upon them, into the administration 
of the General Government; and the matter of 
locality is, after all, of little account. 

Now, the present Ad ministration was elected by 
the blended suffrage of free and of slave States; 
and yet, in reference to certain opinions and pol- 
icy upon the only question of great importance 
in controversy between the North and the South, 
it has been as thoroughly sectional as though all 
the suffrage which created it had laid south of 
Mason and Dixon's line. So true \h this, that 
when the Democratic party assembled at Charles- 
ton to nominate new candidates for the highest 
offices in the Government, there was so much 
division of sentiment on this question that some 
of those who had been its loyal supporters for 
years, in the North, revolted in offense; and left 
their recent associates ultimately to nominate can- 
didates who received not a single electoral vote 
outside of the slave States of the Union. And yet 
men who were the supporters of these candidates 
in the extreme South are, for the most part, those 
who propose to break up this Union for the al- 
leged reason that the nev( President, though 
elected by legal and constitutional means by the 
people of the country, did not receive his support 
m accordance with a certain geographical distri- 
bution of popular opinion and suffrage. But let 
us suppose the President to have been chosen by 
one section of the country only, and that he sym- 
pathizes with the opinions which are in a great 
degree peculiar to that section: this is, after all, a 
small matter, compared with the offset proposed. 
The Government of the United States is design- 
edly so constructed as to place in no one indi- 
vidual, and in no one department, an amount of 
authority or power, which, if exercised alone, 
could be largely destructive of the liberties and 
rights of the people. It is made up in the form of 
a system of checks and balances, in which the 
prerogatives and immunities of the citizen are se- 
cured on the one hand, and the restraints and 
regulations of law are determined and exercised 
by Congress, Executives, Cabinets, and courts, 
on the other. 

It is only when all these are combined in a sin- 



gle dir*" tion, and thus become independent of 
super jion or control, that danger and oppres- 
sion and abuse are to be apprehended; when all 
departments of the Government, concurring in 
one line of policy, may become a manifold despot. 
All experience testifies that good faith and effici- 
ency are promoted by the supervision and re- 
straints of minorities; and that parties become 
corrupt, and the Government which they control 
weakened and pillaged, very much in proportion 
to the magnitude of their majorities and the dura- 
lion of their power. It so happened that, with 
the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, the 
party which supported him had secured a major- 
ity in neither branch of Congress, and therefore 
his opponents need not entertain fears of his ad- 
ministration, even if, under other circumstances, 
evil might be apprehended; because the existing 
laws have been enacted or approved by Con- 
gresses and Presidents of opposite opinions to his 
own respecting the disputed question of the day, 
and no new laws could be reached , except througii 
a Congress in which his friends would be the 
minority. 

But it is not strictly true that the recent election 
was decided wholly upon the issue of the slavery 
question, as is so often stated, here and elsewhere. 
The people not only suspected, but had become 
convinced, that great corruption existed in some 
of the departments of the Government. The lim- 
ited and hasty investigations which had been in- 
stituted, gave abundant evidence of that fact; and 
j thousands of persons gave their votes for the suc- 
! cessful candidate, from the conviction that it was 
j necessary to clear away the abuses which had 
been so freely tolerated. The election overthrew 
the ascendency of the then dominant party; but 
it did not institute its rival with such completeness 
as to render it liable to similar excesses. There 
was such a mingling of success and of failure in 
the result, as to invite watchfulness, preventfraud, 
and secure vigilance in all departments of the 
Government; so that the new Administration, 
judged by any reasonable supposition, was so 
constituted as to render it national in tone, and 
conservative of the interests of the whole country. 
But, besides the election of a President who did 
not reside within the limits of the slave States, 
although he was born in one of them, certain le- 
gislative acts of some of the free States are cited 
as being unconstitutional, and hostile to the re- 
covery of fugitives from service in the southern 
States. It would seem to be sufficient to say, aa 
has been said already, that the laws complained 
of must be of very little practical importance, 
since they have never secured theliberty of a sin- 
gle slave. It is also well understood that all legis- 
lation of the States must be subordinate to the 
Constitution of the United States; and conse- 
quently, that any law which is in conflict with 
that instrument is as inoperative and void as 
though it had never been written. It would be 
needless even to rejjeal such laws, except it be to 
clear the records of statutory rubbish, to remove 
causes of misapprehension, and to maintain that 
respect for the supreme law of the land which 
will be the desire of all patriotic people. The va- 
lidity of any law of the free States may be easily 
determined. The Federal courts in that section 
are free to every citizen, come whence he may; 
and the judges are as incorruptible as the tri- 



buiials are accessible. If any law whatever be 
consiiimionni, then ii is the rig;ht of any State to 
enact it; and tliis liglU becomes a duty when de- 
manded by the security and welfare of its citizens. 
If, on the other hand, it be unconstitutional, it is 
for that reason dead. It is a notable fact that the 
importance of the laws, known as ]>eisonal lib- 
erty laws, seems to be estimated inversely in the 
ratio of the necessity for their existence. Thus 
the Gulf cotton States, which were the first to 
raise the rebellion which assitrns these laws, in 
part, as its cause, or its ju.stification, lose com- 
paratively few slaves; and the States at the op- 
posite extremity of the country, where fugitives 
seldom remain, and through whose domain they 
rarely pass, are those which have been among the 
readiest to enact them. 

There is no reason that I am aware of, to doubt 
that the second section of the fourth article of the 
Constitution was designed to secure the rendition 
of fugitive slaves, and that it was so understood 
at the time of its adoption ; and therefore, the States 
are legally and honorably bound to recognize pro- 
ceedings properly instituted for that purpose. 
While, therefore, such is the duty of the States to 
conform to this obligation, that is also a reason 
why the Federal law, carrying the provision into 
effect, should not be needlessly stringent; and above 
all, why it should not be made specially repugnant 
to the feelings of the people, among whom at best 
ita execution must be more or less odious. It is, 
doubtless, the right of a State to protect its citizens 
against the malexecution of even Federal laws 
within its own jurisdiction, but its loyalty forbids 
that it shall interfere with their legitimate opera- 
tion. The fact that some of the State.s in wliich 
the personal liberty laws exist have voluntarily 
modified or repealed them, or liavo instituted in- 
quiries respecting their validity and necessity, is 
abundant indication that the public mind is so 
open to a proper understanding of the subject, and 
to a right decision, wliatever it may be, as to de- 
stroy all occasion for a disruption of the Govern- 
ment on this account. 

It is still further asserted that the people of the 
free States arc imbued with certain sentiments of 
hoBlility to slavery, the logical sequence of which 
would lead to its entire abolition in the United 
States. Now, if it be objected that the people of 
one Beclion of the country entertain certain opin- 
ions respecting any subject, which opinions are 
the result of n-axon and observation and convic- 
tion, then, inderd, we have a difficulty not easily 
removed; becauHe that objection strikes at the 
foundation of all freedom, and, passing through 
the Bj)heresof public, mid hocial and domcsiic liff, 
invades the sanctity of the individual intellect and 
heart. It is an invasion, not of the rigiit of ac- 
tion or of speech, but of thought, iifion which no 
restraint, unless self-imposed, has ever been long 
Buccessful; an invasion which will be submiiied 
to only by a weak and pusillanimous people. F,r- 
roncous opinions, whose falsity nxu be clearly 
demonstrated, ore cf)niparatively harmless, be- 
cause they are easily cured; and as there is a 
p6wer in nature which springs into exercise for 
the feBior.iiiimof order, whenever any of its forces 
arc disturbed, ho there is a law of ojiinifni work- 
ing through the cycles of lime as infii-xible ns na- 
ture's king. Theref(»re,whatevererrors ofopinion 
prevail in conscquenceof the difficulty of demon- 



strating their falsity, will surely be corrected by 
reaction, sooner or later, at the very point where 
they ha*'e been most common, liut the appre- 
hension felt at the South respecting the hostility 
of the North, and the purpose of the people of 
that section to interfere with slavery where it ex- 
ists under legal .sanction, is totally unfounded. 
The discussion of this subject, if attended with 
loss of temper and with alienation of feeling, has 
been producliveof abetterand clearer understand- 
ing of the mutual rights and obligations of the 
two sections of the country in respect to this in- 
stitution. While the conviction almost univer- 
sally prevails that slavery is an evil and, as an ele- 
ment in society, a weakness, for which the people 
of the North will not hold themselves responsible 
in their own section, yet it is admitted to be an 
institution which has legal existence in certain 
States of this Union, which they are bound to 
recognize. And the extent of this recognition is 
to security from interference by Congress or by 
the Legislature of one Slate with that institution 
in any other State where it exists by sanction of 
the local law. The resolution which was unani- 
mously adopted by this House, a few days figo, 
on this subject, shows that there is no diversity of 
opinion here on this point, and I do not believe 
there is in the Legislatures of any of the free 
Slates. 

Fiut it is said that the danger lies not in the senti- 
ment of opposition to slavery as at present devel- 
oped, but in that form which, to use the current 
expression, is its logical sequence. Now, there 
is scarcely an opinion on any subject which has 
not its rational limits, beyond which it lapses into 
a vice or an absurdity; and almost every virtue 
has at some time or other been drawn out of its 
practical and operative sphere into the barrenand 
useless formula of an abstraction. Thus, we are 
told that the natural consequence of hostility to 
slavery, which the northern people of this coun- 
try share with nearly the whole civilized world, 
is the desire for its abolition everywhere; and 
the sequence of this desire is the attempt to ac- 
complish ihat object; and this attempt is war- 
fare upon the rights and property of the people of 
the South, and hence the necessity for a dissolu- 
tion of the Union. On the other hand, the state- 
miMit is, that slavery being "a great moral, social, 
and political evil," it ought not to be tolerated 
anywhere; but it is tolerated in a portion of the 
Federal Union, and in a measure sanctioned by that 
Union and its Constitution, through the opera- 
tion of local laws; hence that Constitution is an 
infamous compact, and the Union a league with 
powers of evil, which ought to be dissolved; and 
ihus the theory of logical sequence, applied in 
opposite directions to this vexed t|uestioii of sla- 
very, takes us to precisely the same result; and 
hence, too, it is that at tlii.s very day the violent 
champions of slavery on the one hand, and the 
violent Abolitionists on the other, meet in unhal- 
lowed fellowship to destroy this Union, which 
the loyal and patriotic citizens of all sections are 
striving to maintain. 

It is, indeed, not to be wondered at that excite- 
ment and apprehension prevail at the South, if the 
people (if that section l)elieve it to be the purpose 
of the Hepublican party to make forays upon their 
towns, incite servile insurrections, and imperii the 
lives of those who are dearest to them on earth. 



Examples of the most imaginary nature are held 
up as reprpsontativcs of northern sentiment; and 
the expressions of men, whose well known ultra- 
isms long since rendered their opinions powerless 
at home, are disseminated as the current and ac- 
cepted discussion of the relations of the two sec- 
tions of the country; while the foray of John 
Brown, who, after the labor of years, found, in 
the United States and Canada, twenty men willing 
to join a piratical expedition against one of the 
States of this Union, is promulgated as the legiti- 
mate fruit of the intellectual and religious train- 
ing of the whole body of the northern people. 
But who is to be blamed for all this misrepresent- 
ation, when neither northern men nor the north- 
ern press, generally, is allowed to bear the con- 
tradiction and the evidence to their doors? Strong 
and general as is popular disapproval of slavery 
inthefree States, I do notbelieve itis much, if any, 
stronger now than it was ten or fifteen years ago. 
The resolutions of the conventions of the dom- 
inant party in the country are not more stringent 
or decisive than those of the Whig party were 
within the time alluded to; nor do the most dis- 
tinguished men of the Republican party to-day 
give it stronger opposition than did Mr. Webster 
and Mr. Clay. The Whig party had contended 
for the constitutional rights of freemen, and the 
limitation of slavery, until the controversy was 
supposed to be virtually ended in the compromise 
measures of 1650. Tiie dominant party in the 
country to-day contends for nothing more. 

But, sir, the difficulty which at present sur- 
rounds us is deeper than the causes which are 
Eublicly assigned; and, as the conspirators grow 
older, they become more frank in their avowals. 
It is not that Mr. Lincoln has been elected, not 
that the question of slavery is discussed, not that 
its emancipation in the States where it exists is 
apprehended — for they know that is impossible 
so long as the Constitution and the Union are pre- 
served — but it is that two systems of civilization 
are brought into contrast upon this continent; and 
that one of these systems is supposed to sufl'er 
from the other, to which it nevertheless contributes 
. the means of superior success. The distinguish- 
ing difference between them is, that, under one 
system, there is a union of labor and capital in 
the conduct of its enterprises without disparity in 
the prerogatives of citizenship among its popula- 
tion; and that, under the other system, capital 
owns the labor and dictates the character and 
amount of its social and political privileges. Out 
of these different relations maybe traced, respect- 
ively, the tendencies towards the perpetuation of 
a Republic, and towards the establishment of a 
Government essentially aristocratic or monarch- 
ical. The peculiarities of soil and climate have 
favored pursuits in which this distinction may be 
obtained; and the growing alienation of the peo- 
ple of the two sections, arising from an interrup- 
tion of cordial and confidential intercourse and 
association, and from contest for control of the 
unoccupied territory of the country, has obscured 
the immense advantages which accrue from a 
common Government. 

In the midst of this unnatural isolation, the 
aeeds of separation, planted in an unhappy hour 
by an able but always disloyal statesman, have 
germinated and are budding for their legitimate 
fruit. The dreamy and sunlit glories of a south- 



ern confederacy, in which the principles which 
he promulgated and the policy which he foreshad- 
owed are j)romised realization, now entrance the 
gaze and bewilder the patriotism of a portion of 
our fellow-countrymen; while the herald of an 
untried and perhaps blood-stained future sum- 
mons others still to its desperate embrace. 

But another of the chief causes of the present 
disaffection in the cotton States is the arrogance 
engendered by an excessive estimate of their im- 
portance in relation to the markets of the world. 
" Cotton is king," has become the watchword and 
the accepted conclusion of the people of that sec- 
tion, and they have also grown into the belief that 
while the throne of this textile sovereign is based 
upon a narrow belt of States above the Gulf of 
Mexico, his empire is the world; and that his 
scepter can sway the destinies of commerce and 
manufactures, and finally of races, and regulate the 
opinions of men. The vast importance of cotton 
to the commerce and industry of the world need 
not and cannot be questioned. But, however 
gi-eat, it is insuflicient, as is any other single prod- 
duct, for the support of a civilized nation. 

One of the grand mistakes which I apprehend 
would be discovered in the proposed cotton con- 
fedei*acy, is forgetfulness that a diversity of em- 
ployments is essential to national development 
and national wealth; and that this diversity is 
incompatible with but a single product, or with 
several products, provided they require labor of 
but a single grade. A significant example of this 
fact is found in the difference between the free 
and the slave States of this Union; and especially 
between the States of Massachusetts and South 
Carolina, two among the oldest of the number. 
Nature has bestowed upon the latter superior ad- 
vantiiges of soil and climate, and yet, in material 
prosperityand population, she is among the slow- 
est States in progress; while the former, with 
natural disadvantages, supports a larger popula- 
tion to the square mile, well fed, clothed, and ed- 
ucated, than any other State, and has also a larger 
amount of wealth in proportion to her population, 
a large share of which has been derived from her 
diversified industry. This diversity is compati- 
ble only with a considerable dtgree of education 
and discipline on the part of the laborers them- 
selves. Without this the arts cannot flourish, and 
their products will always present the contrast 
of crude and unskillful experiments. Those who 
are more familiar with the characteristics of slave 
population than I am, can better tell how far itis 
consistent with security and subordination to ed- 
ucate them; but all can judge how far the African 
can compete with the white laborer in the compe- 
titions of mechanical industry extensively prose- 
cuted. 

It is true that we have heard suggested as an 
alternative to this education and employment of 
the blacks an invitation to colonies of northern 
mechanics to settle in the South underinducements 
of larger profits and constant employment; and I 
remeinber that the newspapers, about a year ago, 
furnished accounts of such invitations from the 
extreme South to certain bodies of mechanics then 
temporarily out of employment in Massachusetts. 
But the progress of emancipation in the States 
which have become free has been tolerably com- 
mensurate with the introduction of free labor; 
and I do not know why this should not still con- 



6 



tinue to be so. Besides, if the evil or danger of 
living; under h common Government with the 
nortliorn people, tliough separated from them by 
long distances, is so great as to be sufficient cause 
for ilie destruction of the Government and a dis- 
solution of the Union, it is not apparent how that 
evil will be abated, or that danger removed, by 
importing a sufficient number of those people to 
make up the diversity of industrial employments, 
which is essential to the vigorous growth of States. 
But furthermore, Mr. Speaker, there is a proverb 
made trite by frequent illustration, which says 
that " whom the gods wish to destroy they first 
make mad." And to entertain the idea, in this 
age, that the exchanges of the world and its in- 
dustry can be indetinitely controlled, by monop- 
olizing within a small space a product which will 
grow upon one quarter or one third of the earth 's 
surface, is surely an approximation to the hint of 
the proverb. Why, sir, the "world's exhibi- 
tions," as they are termed, showed that the in- 
ventive genius of the age is unparalleled, and we 
see the practical evidences of the fact on every 
hand; and if there be one characteristic in which 
tl>e people of the northern States proverbially 
excel, it is a wonderful sagacity in the discovery 
of expedients to overcome difficulties. ' 

Itsingiilarly happens that two or three incidents , 
occur at this juncture of affairs which are likely j 
to affect tlie progress of the confederacy of cotton j 
States which is foreshadowed. > 

1. The divergence of the flow of cotton from 
the southern commercial cities to the inland rail- ; 
road routes, to which it is forced by the inter- 
ruption of southern ports, and the development! 
of the fact that this mode of communication and \ 
transport presents special advantages of speed, 
safety, and probably of economy; which consid- 
erations are likely to render the employment of 
these routes permanent after the present necessity 
fortheir use has been withdrawn. Siiould this be 
80, the effect upon the points alluded to must bo 
•very unfavorable, especially as the return freights 
v^ijf be likely to follow the same lines of travel 
and in the same vehicles. 

2. As to the supply of cotton. England, if I 
mistake not, obtains about thirty per cent, of her 
supply from India; and the quantity from that 
source is likely to increase, rather Uian diminish, 
in the ratio of her future consumption; the balance 
she gets from various sources, butchielly from the 
United Slates. Uecentdiscoveries in Africa indicate 
the adaptability of an immense tract of country to 
cotton culture, surrounded and overrun with labor 
suited lo that purjjose; and linglish t'nter[)rise has 
already commenced its occupation. We have ul.so 
nccountsof influences at work inTurkey, through 
which that ancient country, ri'j)ut(,-d now to grow 
thirty-five to forty million pounds of cotton an- 
nually, will immensely increase lur production. 
Egypt, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and the VVest Indies, 
are also growing competilor.i. Two of our coun- 
trymen who have enjoyed opportunities for ex- 
tensive (observation in Central Am'-rica, have ri-- 
cently givi.-n to the public statem«:nts showing the 
complete facilitii-8 for cotton culture in lheregit)n 
lying at the foot of our continent, and the jobcu- 
iiur inducements for its joroseculion. Measures 
have already been initiai<:d for the organi-/.alion 
of enterprises of a peaceful nature, to be sustained 
by associated capital, which shall undertake this 



business. The land may be obtained at small 
cost, the local governments favor the enterprise, 
and the desideratum of cheap labor may be con- 
sidered to be substantially supplied by the local 
population and the opening of voluntary emigra- 
tion from China to California, and elsewhere, and 
which would undoubtedly be attracted to this new 
field. Here are already resources sufficient to 
supply the world with cotton; and the reason why 
they have not been earlier considered and devel- 
oped is because the regular sources of supply from 
the cotton States have not been materially inter- 
rupted. Much less than the enterprise and capital 
which have been expended on northern railroads 
or northern factories would render the cultivation 
of cotton in these new fields abundantly success- 
ful, and the supply inexhaustible. 

3. There is a new rival to King Cotton himself, 
of different, but possibly of formidable lineage. 
During several years past, various experiments 
have been made for obtaining a substitute for cot- 
ton from flax; and, since the idea of compulsory 
terms for a supply of cotton from the southern 
States has been promulgated, the result of these 
experiments hasbeeabroughtmore conspicuously 
into notice. 

I have before me a specimen of flax cotton, for- 
warded to me within a week past by an extensive 
merchant, residing in the district which 1 have 
the honor to represent. The specimen was ac- 
compiuiied by a letter, which says that this article 
can be produced and delivered in Boston at seven 
and a half cents per pound, it being grown in the 
free States. Two million pounds of this article 
will be manufactured during the present year, 
the letter proceeds to say; and the quantity can 
be extended indefinitely. I do not know how 
universally adapted to use this cotton is, and 1 am 
aware that two million pounds is not an alarming 
I quantity. But if this article is only adapted to 
I the commonest purposes, and if we remember, 
I also, how recent is the tinn; when the United States 
I altogether did not produce two million pounds of 
cotton, this may be esteemed a competitor not to 
be despised. With all these facts before them, 
; luid many others, which this occasion does not 
I permit me to mention, it ajipears to me that, if 
j there be any portion of the American people who 
j are in danger of mistaking their commercial im- 
! portance, and whi(;h needs that alliance and pro- 
lection which is found in a great Power like the 
undivided Union, that portion is the cotton States. 
! As the cause of the existing difficulties is mis- 
taken or insufficient, so is the remedy resorted to 
I unjustifiable and treasonable. It is an attempt, 
under the guise of a plausible and inoffensive 
phrase, to break engagements solemnly made at 
home and abroad; to destroy the Government 
which the disaflected can no longer control; and 
lo preciiiitale the country into revolution, regard- 
less of the rights of those whose fealty is un- 
broken, and reckless of the happiness of the young 
and of millions yet unborn, lo whom this glorious 
Union belongs as tlit'ir rightful heritage. Why 
j will any deceive themselves with the change of 
I name, when the startling fact of rebellion or of 
revolution is everywhere visible — States passing 
what are tenderly called ordinances of secession; 
declaring themselves independent of a Govern- 
ment whose responsibilities they have jointly cre- 
ated; seizing the public forts und arsenals and 



— n^nouses and treasuries; 
navy-yards and n« Federal authority, and firing 
settjnffatd''*"'^^' flag. Sir, if there be depths of 
uDC '^'-'01 'o which an American citizen can de- 
-_end,,-nore profound than the disgust which lie 
feels at the imbecility or treachery of those whose 
early and decisive action might have prevented 
these atrocious deeds, it was found in the experi- 
ence of a gallant young officer attached to the naval 
station at Pensacola, and whose cheek burned 
with mingled shame and indignation as he told 
the fact that the stars and stripes, which -had so 
often kindled his ambition, and beneath which he 
had stood in the conscious pride of«i citizen of a 
free and mighty nation, ignoniiniously fell by j 
rebellious hands in the very presence of a foreign [ 
man-of-war. Secession is not a dissolution of a [ 
partnership of States; it is rebellion against the 
Government of the country, as has been most 
forcibly presented by that stern and vigorous pa- 
triot who dealt successfully with secession thirty 
years ago. Says General Jackson: 

" The Constitution of tlie United States forms a Govern- 
ment, not a league ; and wlietlier it be formed by compact 
between tlie States, or in any otlier manner, its cliaracter 
is the same. It is a Government in which all the people are 
represented, which operates directly on the people individ- 
ually, not upon the States; theyretained all the power they 
did not grant. But each State having expressly parted witli 
so many powers as to constitute jointly with the other 
States a single nation, cannot, from that period, possess any 
right to secede, because such secession does not break a 
league, but destroys the unity of a nation ; and any injury 
to that unity is not only a breach which would result from 
the contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against 
the whole Union. To say that any State may secede at 
pleasure from the Union, is to say that the United States are 
not a nation ; because it would be a solecism to contend that 
any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the 
other parts to their injury or ruin, without connnitting any 
otfensc. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may 
be morally justified by the extremity of oppression ; but to 
call it a constitutional right is confounding the meaning of 
terms." 

Sir, there is not an American citizen who could 
endure the insults and atrocities which have been 
heaped upon his country by the seceding States 
if they had proceeded from a foreign Power. 

TheGovernmenthas submitted to these wrongs 
and indignities, and still stands waiting and ap- 
palled before this gigantic rebellion. The execu- 
tion of the laws has been discussed in the aspect 
of coercing States, and the seizure of Federal 
property by revolutionary States, as the resump- 
tion of their undelegated rights; and all the while 
we have been apparently drifting towards worse 
results. The prestige of the Government abroad, 
as well as at home, is almost gone; its credit 
broken; its power questioned. The iDUsiness of 
the country is becoming paralyzed ; our ships idle ; 
our industry hushed; and all this because of the 
madness of a few men, who are bent upon the 
policy of rule or ruin. Nor are the evils which 
flow from this great conspiracy limited to national 
disgrace and national calamity, but they perme- 
ate all orders of society, and demoralize the whole 
sentiment of obedience, and all love of order. The 
example of stupendous crimes and misdemeanors 
on the part of States, and of some in Federal au- 
thority, have corrupted the public conscience, and 
prepared it for the toleration of every species of 
wrong. In places where honor dwelt, treason 
boldly stalks, and shame flaps its filthy garments, 
and displays its pilfered, or meretricious charms. 
Instead of appeals to executives and tribunals for 



redress of grievaiTces, anarchy is introduced to 
drown the voice of justice, and mobs are invoked 
to anticipate with swifter vengeance the deliber- 
ate processes of law. It is but a single step fur- 
ther to the revolver and the stiletto, as the ac- 
cepted and accustomed arbitrators and avengers 
of individual wrongs. 

And now, Mr. Speaker, are there any means 
by which these evils, public and private, may be 
overcome, and order be composed in their stead.' 
Such an undertaking, as I have already intimated, 
will demand the best powers of the nation, but it 
is not altogether hopeless. I understand full well 
the feelings of those who, smarting under a sense 
of indignation and injustice, refuse to accede to 
any measyi-es which seem to them like an atone- 
ment for wrongs which have never been commit- 
ted, and who believe that the voices of living men, 
and the silent but unequivocating testimony of 
history, will alike declare that, in the prolonged 
controversy which has been waged, the North 
has had the unequal task of bearing up against 
hostile opinion supported by the whole power 
of the Government, which for half a century, 
with small interruptions, has been its constant 
auxiliary. I can applaud with honest sympathy 
the spirit which refuses to bow to the domination 
of'its peers, or to negotiate for peace with those 
who appear in the panoply of rebellious arms. 
Something in the way of indulgence may also be 
granted to the pride of a great party in the flush 
of its triumph, and disposed to wear its laurels 
with comeliness, save when its submission is im- 
periously demanded. But let it be remembered 
that those who have gone out of the Union, and 
now stand in the attitude of hostility to its Gov- 
ernment and to its people, seek no terms of recon- 
ciliation. Their purposes, no longer aided by the 
resources of the Union, are no longer disguised 
under the form of grievances seeking for redress. 

It is but a few days since one of the Represent- 
atives of the State of Louisiana, in his valedic- 
tory remarks, upon retiring from this Hall, said 
it was his belief, that if the most conciliatory 
propositions now before the Hqusc were adopted, 
that would not stop the progress of secession in 
the section of country from whence he came. The 
declaration of Mr. Yancey, in his recent speech 
before the State convention of Alabama, is still 
more uncompromising and decisive. He said: 

" I avow myself as utterly, unalterably, opposed to any 
and all plans of reconstructing a Union with the Black Re- 
publican States of the North. No new guarantees, no 
amendments of the Constitution, no peaceful resolutions, 
no repeal of offensive laws, can offer me any, the least, 
inducement to reconstruct our relations with the non-slave- 
holding States." 

This much, then, at least, is settled; we need 
not seek for terms of reconciliation with those 
who decline, beforehand, any appeal which could 
be submitted, and who have chosen for themselves 
the attitude of implacable enemies of the Govern- 
ment and the Union. But, air, there are those 
who have assumed no such attitude, and yet who^ 
from personal apprehension, or from the neces- 
sity of their position, look to those who desire to 
preserve the Government for some consideration 
of their position; and I have heard, not without 
emotion, the patriotic appeals of those gentlemen 
from the border States who have spoken so nobly 
and so ably for the preservation of the Union. 
Their words have fallen upon the country like 



8 



the voice of Providence interposing to stay the | 
tide of rebellion and to avert the horrors of in- 
testine war. 1 
And I felt afresh liope for tl>e continuance of the 
Union when 1 heard my distinguished colleague the , 
other day, under circumstances which exemplified j 
and tested his statesmanship, make his jmtrioiic ' 
response to those appeals. We may wj;11 seek for 
consistent eft'ort and fellowship with those who j 
have been as loyal to the Union as ourselves, and 
who have never .approached us with maledictions ' 
or threats, to join again as our fathers joined, to 
preserve that Union which they toiled and died 
to create; and for myself, I feel it to be my duly, j 
without the sacrifice of essential principles, to pay 
some heed to the exigencies and necessities of the : 

t)resent and the future, as well as to any shibbo- 
eths of the past. And I believe the generous j 
constituency which sent me here, not as a politi- ; 
cian or as a partisan more than as a citizen, and , 
by a various surtVage, will justify me, amidst these 
unexpected embarrassments, in the exercise of . 
tliat independence which is requisite to insure the 
guidance of my own judgment. If otherwise, 
then, much as 1 might regret the loss of their con- j 
currence, I cannot decline the responsibility of j 
doing that which patriotism and duty demand of 
me. I am not prepared to sacrifice any princif)le 1 
which seems to me essential to the right position j 
of the incoming Administration. Having con- 
tributed in a humble degree, to its inception, I 
expect to do whatever I may to promote its con- 
tinued success. But may not some of the weapons 
of aggressive warfare be laid aside after the cita- 
del is taken, and those be brought into action 
which are adapted to its security and defense.' 
Viewed from a political stand-point, the rallying 
principle of a party is valuable to it chiefly to that 
degree in which it may be administered when that 
party is successful. Licentiousness may be but an 
excess of liberty and superstition of failh. May 
Jiol men of all parties pause, then, and see to it 
that in our contests to settle the doctrine of civil 
freedom wedo not blot out from theearth itsfairest 
and most hopeful and most puissant example? 

If they will restore peace to the country, or 
satisfy our friends in the border Slates, as I think 
they ought to tlo, I am willing to support, in the 
main, the propositions of the committee, the prin- 
cipal features of which are, the constitutional 
amendment and theenabling act forNew Mexico, 
proposed by my colleague; or, if it may be deemed 
more satisfai-tory, a convention of the people, 
legitimately called, to which the subject in con- 
troversy may be referrt-d. But I cannot vote for 
measures wliicli, in my bi-lief, would secure only 
a temporary lull of exciti'ment, with tht? |)roba- 
bility of bringing back an aggravation of evils at 
no distant day. The Union is loo great a prize 
to be slaked at every presidential election. The 
question ofits preservation, in spite of the existing 
causes ofdiscontent, should be definitively settled 
now. If possible, it all on Id be so settled as to restore 
that ancient harinnny and fi-lluWHhr|) among the 
States, which would lie a liond of Union stronger 
ttiaii stiilules or compromises or cunstitulions. 



In addition to theTTC 
spoken here and elsewhereords which have been 
the border States, several ot c-.friotic men from 
spoken for themselves in unmistaiv',>„t(.s have 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri hav.,..,^jj 
so; and Virginia, mother of Slates and of Pres*. 
dents, has spoken with the great voice of her peo- 
ple, proclaiming that the remains of him to whose 
tomb strangers from every land make pilgrimage, 
and at the mention of whose name every Ameri- 
can heart swells with mingled reverence and grat- 
itude, shall still sleep in the soil of that Union 
which has rendered the glory of liis name imper- 
ishable. Mn^achusetts, which holds in her bosom 
the ashes of his great compeer — that Massachu- 
setts which poured out her treasure like sand, and 
her blood like water, in the days of common peril, 
and whose valiant sons sleep in the soil of every 
State, from Maine to Georgia — will hail with joy 
the steadfast loyalty of her ancient friend. 

Mr. Speaker, in the failure of a peaceful adjust- 
ment of the existing troubles, we have been told 
the dread alternative is war. Already have our 
ears become accustomed to thatsound; some speak 
of it as possible, and others even as propable,and 
speculate upon its duration and picture iis horrors. 
More than once have we heard how valiant and 
relentless will be the contest on the part of those 
who have already left, or who design to leave, the 
Union. I have no wish to say a word in retalia- 
tion; but let me cite the language of Mr. Clay, 
uttered a little more than ten years ago, upon the 
characteristics of such a war. He said: 

" If, unhappily, we should be involved In war — a civil 
war — between the two pans of this Confederacy, in which 
the etTorts upon tlie one side should be to restrain the intro- 
duction of slavery into new Territories, and upon the other, 
to force its introduction there, what a spectacle should we 
present to the astonishrnentof mankind, in an eirort,not to 
propas^ate ri^rhts, hut — I must say, though I trust it will be 
understood to be said with no desi-jn to excite feeling — a 
war to propagate wrongs In the Territories thus acquired 
from Mexico. It would be a war in which we should have 
no sympathies, no good wishes; in which all mankind 
would be against us ; in which ourown liislory itself would 
be against us." 

Even in such a war as that, sir, I will not doubt 
the valor of any of our countrymen; I will not 
impugn the courage of any portion of the Ameri- 
can people. But I mean no threat when I say, 
that it should be remembered that this manly vir- 
tue is not limited locithersection. Those whoscoff 
at Puritan blood should trace the history of those 
who have come of it. If it be cold and not easily 
roused, when roused it does not so easily subside. 
It has overflowed its earlier landmarks, and gone 
I mingling with the sturdy races which people the 
; mighty West; it has sent nola small element into 
I the gallant South; and wherever found, it will be 
folly to count lipon its weakness. The same 
;{ ipialities which would make a civil war terrible 
I among our countrymen, are those most valuable 
1 1 in the conservation of a steadfast peace. 'I'o this 
, end, therefore, let our present counsels be aimed, 
j and our elTorts directed, and only after reason has 
I failed, and conciliation trenches upon ju.stice, let 
us think of an alternative which shall fill our land 
with mourning, and its rivers with blood. 



';JCA?«,?y 




